Redwork is Special Exhibit at A Quilter’s Gathering Quilt Show, 2002
by Patricia L. Cummings
photos by James Cummings
The special gallery exhibit in the year 2002 at A Quilter's
Gathering was an array
of Redwork items collected by Marcia Learmonth. In her travels between
Massachusetts and California, Marcia has assembled quite a large number of
late nineteenth century and early twentieth century redwork embroidery pieces and quilts. The
first display was a panel of “assorted accessories” ranging from laundry
bags, shoe bags, a splasher, potholders and a unique barber shawl for
haircut time.
No Redwork exhibit would be complete without Ruby McKim’s designs. Marcia included the Colonial History Quilt that, along with other McKim quilt patterns, has become so famous. A second tribute to McKim’s influence on Redwork was the Nursery Rhyme quilt that Marcia calls the “Charles Snow Summer Coverlet.”
Collector and Needleworker
Marcia enjoys doing Redwork as much as she likes collecting it. Therefore, there were several pieces in the exhibit that she had made. Dressed in a Redwork vest that she had assembled from “orphan blocks,” Marcia was all prepared when she gave gallery talks on all four days of the “Gathering.” She had many coverlets and “summer spreads,” many of them containing the same recurring, and now classic designs such as the girl jumping rope, chicks in a hat, and the ubiquitous dog with a collar.
We enjoyed seeing all that Marcia shared and since you could not be there too, we are showing some of these images to you.
Sheraton Tara Hotel, Nashua, NH - site of The Quilter's Gathering, November 2002